Music Ambassadors 2024 of the second round announced

As part of the Music Ambassador programme, we commission Berlin players in the music industry to present Berlin as a location in Germany and abroad and to network sustainably. Until end of July 2024, it was possible to apply to the Berlin Music Commission (BMC) to become a Music Ambassador and, once accepted, to receive part of the travel costs for the project period from mid-September 2024 to mid-December. The programme was advertised for the first time in a pilot project together with Musicboard Berlin. This enabled musicians and their professional teams to apply.

The travel grant programme was advertised for the tenth time in 2024. The ambassadors were selected by the jury, which was composed as follows: Evyonne Muhuri (Makakali), Ima Johnen (musicologist & transformation designer) and Karin Mueller (MA Music Academy Berlin).

Photo: Christoph Mangler

The following 24 people will receive a travel grant between September 2024 and December 2024:

Anita Richelli (brighter agency) – London, Großbritannien / Pitchfork London
Arthur Janssen (Playbook Artists LTD, Booking-Agent) – Montreal, Canada / Pop Montreal
Gideon Elfgen (Piranha Arts, Marketing- und Kommunikationsmanager) – Brisbane, Australien/ BIGSOUND
James Cameron alias Jimmy Trash (Freier Journalist, Bandcamp Daily) – Amsterdam/ Netherlands/ Research project on musicians from Surinamese culture
Jean-Paul Mendelsohn (MfK – Konzerte, Beratung & Management) – Reykjavik, Island/ Iceland Airwaves Festival
Kotoe Karasawa (Bucht der Träumer, Booker) – Nyege Nyege Festival, Jinja, Uganda
Michelle Kaletta-Horrig (CURA BERLIN) – Lissabon, Portugal/ artistic and professional collaboration, opening up a new region
Natalie Padabed (More Zvukov Agency) – Rennes, Frankreich / Transmusicales Festival
Ralf Diemert (von der haardt GmbH) – Los Angeles, USA, networking with management, live agencies, publishers, labels and film production companies
Sam Eyvazziaei (Future East) – Utrecht, Netherlands / Uncloud Festival for future collaboration and co-operation
Tanya Timofeeva (River Song Music / Steam Music Group) – Palma de Mallorca, IMPF Global Music Summit Palma 2024
Ziad Fayed (AL Berlin GbR) – Utrecht, Netherland, Le Guess Who? Connecting with international promoters and artists

In addition, we are able to support the following artists & teams with a travel grant as part of our cooperation with Musicboard Berlin:

Aditi Gupta (Ditty) + Keno Langbein (Monsterra Label) – India, multiple cities / to make contacts in the Indian Indie- and Rap-scene for international cooperations
Alexandra Ivanova (Alexandra Ivanova Trio) + Marita Goga (Goga Music Arts Conception) – Ghent, Belgium / European Jazz Network meeting/conference
Anna Rosa Palmu (PALMU) – Amsterdam, Netherlands / Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE)
Danyil Merkulov (Aircraft) – Amsterdam, Netherlands / Concert
Tania Takoh ( T’neeya) – Paris, France & Manchester, UK/ MAMA & WOMEX24
Johannes ‘Younes’ Klinge (YOUN3S) – Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat/ Morocco / Initiation of artistic and professional collaborations, artist residencies
Katrin Richter (Kat Kat Tat) – Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Baltic States / sound research and communication on the subject of ‘The last matriarchy in Europe’
Liana Dolgopolova (Liana Dolgopolova) – Montreal, Canada – Les Vespérales de l’orgue du Sacré-Cœur, for Creative production/collaboration.
Lin Bender (LIN) – Milan, Florence / Italy / Building a team in Italy
Mirna Stanic (M.Rider) – New York, USA / Initiation of artistic/professional collaborations
Patric Cremer (Patric Catani) – Seattle, USA / Game Convention Pax West and small promotion gigs
Szabolcs Bognar (Àbáse) + Erik Breuer (Brewery Studios GmbH / Analogue Foundation / Bar Neiro) – Amsterdam, Netherlands / deepening business relations with Rush Hour Distributio
Sarah Martin (Meagre Martin) – New York NY & Boston MA, USA + Montreal, Canada / Pop Montreal and professional networking activities in NYC and Boston
Sasha Perera (Perera Elsewhere) – New York, America / Artist Residency, ideally collab with National Sawdust

The project promotes the international networking of Berlin’s players and strengthens the internationalization of Berlin’s music industry as a whole. It helps individual players as well as small and medium-sized enterprises to establish contacts in the international music business and thus promotes their growth into healthy economic enterprises with high sustainability. A Music Ambassador has the task of representing Berlin as a music location. The program is specifically aimed at projects that generate coordinated knowledge and experience transfer between Berlin and other music locations and promote networking with other music locations. One focus is on network exchange and cooperation between music networks. Preference will be given to joint projects, joint conference projects and delegation trips. Activities for the initiation and preparation of such projects would also be recognized.